Orange-chinned Parakeet

[Bill Holsten]

These are tough birds, about the size of a small Oriole. At fruit feeders, they refuse to let larger birds (Toucans, Aracaris, Oropendolas, Parrots) chase them away from the fruit. The biggest challenge in photographing them is to find one without a face full of banana or papaya. Photographed last month at Laguna del Lugarto, Costa Rica on an excellent workshop with Greg Basco and Doug Brown. The beak was semi-inundated with ripe banana, necessitating major beak surgery in PS. I really like the composition, the way the perch frames the bird. Having the orange chin in view is a bonus.

1D Mark IV, 500mm, 1/500", f/9, ISO 400, tripod, no flash

Critique and comments welcome and encouraged.

[christopher galeski]

nice one Bill,love the colors in this,great BG,nice perch and pose,sharp with good detail.

[arash_hazeghi]

man this is beautiful. Greg and Doug know what they are doing. I usually don't like the perch blocking the bird, but in this one the perch is very nice so it works for me.

[David Salem]

This is very nice indeed. The perch, the colors, the detail and the awesome BG make for a beautiful shot. Nice work.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful and colorful image.

[vishaljadhav]

You know what Bill, if you would have shown me only the frame with the perch going across it i may have still fallen in love with this one, you got even a parakeet on it
The color tones are superb, lovely placement of the perch in the frame and the bird looks fantastic
A truly wonderful image over all

[shane shacaluga]

I love this image. I think this is the image that comes into our heads when we think of a tropical jungle

I really like all that green with the contrasting orangeish beak

TFS

[Shawn Zierman]

Sweet bg!!! I've seen many great images come out of the workshops put on by these guys and this is no exception.
Very nice job on the bill clean up. Composition is beautiful. Excellent perch complexities.

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent perch, bird, and eye contact.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Bill. These little guys were hard to get good images of - seems they usually had their head stuck in a banana! You did a great job with the beak cleanup and I really like the pose, perch, comp, light, and background. An excellent image!

[Don Nelson]

Compelling portrait of this bird, including the mossy perch complements the bird (Like Arash, I don't usually like large diameter perches obscuring the bird, but this one works well). Excellent IQ.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic image Bill, all those different shades of green are very nice. The darer BG works quite well and I love the faint streaking within it. Bill clean-up is seamless and I would not have known otherwise.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Superb image Bill, I love the perch, the HA, the light and the sharpness is perfect. Beautiful bird!!

[Doug Brown]

Thumbs up on this one Bill! Nice perch, eye contact, and sharpness. The texture in the BG adds a lot to the image.

[Robert Holguin]

Lovely shot.
Background and perch are just wonderful.
Great perch and IQ.
Well done.

[Bill Holsten]

Thanks to all of you who took the time to comment on this image. I felt good about it before I read the comments. i feel great about it now.

Thanks again,
Bill